The Perfect Place for you by Gloria Copeland Dearest folks, I would like to begin to share with you a series of articles in the May 2009 issue of the Believers Voice of Victory that will greatly enrich your faith and be a real blessing to you.
Ken and I have been on this journey of faith now for more than 42 years. As I look back, I see how God has manoeuvred us into different situations and different places. The longer we have walked with Him the easier it has become for Him to manoeuvre us, and the bigger the manoeuvres have become.
Our journey—our life—has been a marvellous adventure as we have allowed the Lord to work the plan He has always had in His heart, and bring us to the perfect place He has prepared. We have learned to do what He tells us to do, and we get better at it every day. God is able to bless us because we are where we’re supposed to be—doing what we’re supposed to be doing.
We didn’t get to His perfect place for us by our own human effort. We tried human effort for a long time and got nowhere. We got to our place by His Word. His loving correction has kept us moving forward in His plan. When we learned to view His Word as our guide, to constantly keep it in front of us and to obey it, we were able to stay on course.
Many of you probably got born again when someone presented the spiritual law: “God has a plan for your life.” Well, that’s true, He does have a plan—and being born again is the starting point. Once you get started, if you follow God’s lead, you come to that perfect place in your life—the place of shalom with “nothing missing and nothing broken.” And life becomes a great adventure!
The Light of Dawn – Look at Proverbs 4:18 in The Amplified Bible and you’ll see what I mean: “The path of the [uncompromisingly] just and righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines more and more (brighter and clearer) until [it reaches its full strength and glory in] the perfect day.”
As we walk the path God has laid out for us day by day, our directions get brighter and clearer with each step. One right step leads to the next. As we continue to walk by faith, trusting God every step of the way, we reach the destiny He has for us. It could be a step of healing that leads to perfect health. It could be a step in our finances that leads to financial freedom. He may guide us to take a step in our marriage or family that brings us to the place described in Deuteronomy 11:21 as heaven on earth.
Our path gets brighter and brighter, and I find that as we walk with the Lord things just begin to dawn on us. And that’s what we say: “It just dawned on me that something was the right step to take or the right thing to do.”
I will never forget the day Ken and I were eating breakfast with our children at a Denny’s in Texarkana. It just dawned on us, right there in that restaurant while we were eating bacon and eggs (we ate bacon back in those days), we had to go on television and we had to do it right then. The idea of television had been out there in the twilight of our thinking somewhere for a long time. We knew we would do it someday—we felt like God wanted us to do it, but we didn’t know how. Television for us was definitely in the twilight, but at that moment it became clear as day—if we don’t do this now, we’ll be out of the will of God.
We didn’t have the money, the staff or the expertise and equipment we would need. But, we were following after the Lord and it just dawned on us, “We can do this. We must do this.”
It was impossible in the natural—but it was the plan of God. It was what He wanted for us, and He made the way for us to do it.
That’s faith—believing God will enable you to do each task or assignment He puts before you. And He does!
When you can think back on the last impossible thing the Lord asked you to do—and the one before that and the one before that—you gain confidence in your walk of faith. You didn’t know how you could do it and you saw God work it out. The longer you stay in His plan, the more experience you’ll gain. It helps you realise that even though you
don’t know how its going to get done, if the Lord tells you to do it—it will get done, if you’ll just obey Him and do it!
I love walking with the Lord. I love walking in peace and knowing the joy of doing His will. When I get up in the morning, I ask the Lord to direct me on His shining path that day.
Sometimes you may think you’ll have to sacrifice something to do what He’s asking you to do, but I guarantee you, it will never be a sacrifice. When you obey God, things get better and better, and brighter and brighter. The further you walk out His plan, the happier you will be and the more peace you will enjoy. You will wake up every day knowing you’re right in the middle of God’s goodness—the perfect place He has planned for you.
The Good Plan –Everything God does is good. His plan is always good. We must have confidence in His goodness.
Psalm 138:8 says, “The Lord will work out His plans for my life—for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever. Don’t abandon me, for you made me” (New Living Translation). The Lord made each one of us. He formed us in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13), then He recreated us when we were born again by the incorruptible seed of His Word (2 Corinthians 5:17). I’m different than I was before I was born again. I’m different on the inside, and so are you. You may not be walking out that difference right now, but you are different.
When you begin to follow the Spirit of God, you can become the man or woman you’d like to be, because God will bring out the best in you. He’ll put you in the place where you will ultimately be a blessing to His people, even while you yourself are being blessed.
You will hear from heaven and be able to do things you never dreamed you could do. You’ll be happy and full of joy because you’ll be doing what you were born again to do. You will sail through life and go through each day with the joy of the Lord as your strength.
God is constantly calling you to His plan. He will give you one opportunity after another to be born again—to place your faith in the Lord Jesus. But He won’t make you do it. It is your choice. It’s the first step.
Staying in Place – When we receive Jesus, God fills us with His Spirit—our Teacher and Counsellor who is available to us morning, noon and night. The Holy Spirit keeps us on course, lovingly correcting us by the Word, letting us know when we have made a right choice or a wrong one. God has given us everything we need to keep our ear fine-tuned to His direction. And if we stray off the path, He has given us the gift of repentance to correct our course and lead us right back where He needs us to be.
The words of David in Psalm 139 give us a clear picture of God’s everlasting desire and ability to keep us on the path He has for us. Every word is one of encouragement to help us remember that God knows us—every action, every word, every thought and every motive of our heart. He is never caught off guard by anything we say or do.
The key to walking out God’s plan and staying secure in our place, is to always desire our heart to be in line with His heart. David said, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23 -24).
Dare to say that to the Lord. “Lord, I appreciate it so much when You correct me. Thank You for teaching me. Thank You for correcting me. Thank You for pointing out anything in my life You want me to change or where I’m missing it.”
If we continually look to the Holy Spirit to keep us on track, we know we will be in the right place every moment of our lives. We will have in our heart what He wants us to do, and we will set ourselves up for continuous blessing. We will move in the right direction in our homes, in our ministries and in our workplaces—we will stay on target in God’s plan for us.
God’s Plan Prevails – Now, you and I know people who have disagreed with the Lord all the days of their lives. They refuse to listen to Him. They refuse to ask Him for direction. They don’t realize He has a unique plan for each individual, and His plan will not change!
Proverbs 19:21 says: “Many plans are in a man’s mind, but it is the Lord’s purpose for him that will stand” (AMP) [Temisan’s paraphrase – Every other plan we have without God cannot survive the challenges of the world and will fall, but only the Lord’s purpose for us is blessed and will stand strong]. He doesn’t change His mind about what He has planned for you. You may decide to live life “your way”, but that doesn’t change the plan of God for you.
You can get in on God’s plan today, you can wait until tomorrow or you can wait until your life is almost over. He gives everyone the same opportunity—the same call to come on over to the place He has prepared for them.
I would say to you, get in on God’s plan today. Start your walk on the path to His perfect place for you right now. There is no better time! After all, His plan is the highest and blessed plan. You will love it! VICTORY
“...You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavour? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world-like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father...” – Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:13 – 16) New Living Translation